Secret vectors

This got me thinking about the bee’s waggle dance and vector vs cartesian orientation. Our eyes can do cartesian, but most of our senses, including basic orientation via the eyes, are vector.

Looking through PNAS, found a new bit of bee research that goes way beyond this question.

The researchers placed an artificial feeder in a location without any food cues. No surrounding flowers or plants. They let the foragers find it and dance about it, then tracked the workers who responded to the dance.

Some of the workers went out directly, and others were caught just outside the hive and released elsewhere.

Thus, the search phase begins hundreds of meters from where it would ordinarily begin, at a location not arrived at by flying from the hive. To steer toward the source location during their search phase, a recruit must set a course from this unexpectedly-arrived-at location toward a not-previously-visited source location. In short, we find that whether the vector flight occurs and its parameters when it does occur depend strongly on the terrain over which it is made.

Conclusion: The dance is talking about much more than just the vector from the hive. The dance is saying which already known features you should see along the way, and perhaps giving new vectors from each of those startpoints.

Like human language, this is an inherently secret transfer of information. Only the bees in this hive would understand the vectors from specific locations.

The human equivalent is:

Head toward Elmer’s old farm, and watch for the Chevy engine that I buried. Turn left and look for that place where Pearl thought she might get married, and then head toward the tree that Harlan cut down back in 19 and 55. Or was it 19 and 56?

Incomprehensible to a listener who hasn’t been in the same social circle for several generations. For a listener in the circle, you could drive her in the dark to any place in the area and she would know which part of the sequence to start from.

= = = = =

Later thought: Did humans dance about it before we sang about it before we talked about it? Some old dances are literally waggledances.

Dogs also do a literal waggledance when they’re trying to inform the family about a problem that needs solving.